March 14, 2017

Meet Yeuda Ben-Atar of Beat Lab Academy in Eagle Rock

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Yeuda Ben-Atar.

Yeuda, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I moved to the US about 7 years ago from Israel. My girlfriend at the time – now wife – got a great job in LA and wanted to move. I was still in the middle of music school but decided to move with her. I left my family and friends behind and started a new life in California.

About 5 years ago I got certified as an Ableton Trainer. Which is a very popular music software.

I started teaching at music schools around LA and Ableton, the company, would send me to do lectures at universities and professional studios like: UCLA, USC, Calarts, ASU Skywalker studios, Conway studios and many more.

Over time I noticed I was getting extremely good feedback on my teaching style. I had private students who stuck with me for years until I got too busy with family.

At the time I had a small studio in Silverlake. I was giving a lot of music production privates while teaching at schools around LA and doing online education (lynda.com).
One day a guy named Larry came to take a private. He really enjoyed the lesson so he brought 4 other friends to the next one.

After a couple of meetings he told me I should open my own school. This was a plan of mine for a long time, but only after he pushed me to actually look for space did I decide it was time to do this.

In January 2015 we opened our doors. It’s been two years and over 100 students. All of who are now part of a community. It’s hard to explain the quality level of education we provide. I can only say that it’s really good, but that’s just me.

We put a lot of effort into developing our community so even when a student graduates from our program we still keep in touch, and help with his or her musical journey as much as we can.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?

When I had just gotten to California I didn’t have a working Visa for 2 years. It was depressing.

Some good came out of it – I started to hack old video game controllers and turn them into musical instruments.

Controllers like the Nintendo power glove, Dreamcast Arcade stick, PS3, Wii and many more.

I guess boredom can be inspiring.

For the business aspect, I never had any official business education so I had to learn everything myself. Especially considering this is a new country for me so I need to learn everything from scratch. Texas, state regulations, education institutions laws and so much other stuff it’s ridiculous.

But the biggest challenge is to balance family and work. I have 2 young boys at home and my wife is taking care of most of it plus finding time to volunteer to help refugees. I honestly don’t know how she does it.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Beat Lab Academy story. Tell us more about the business.
We are a modern music production school. We offer music education like any other conservatory but the musical instrument is the computer.

Attending a Beat Lab class is the same as attending a piano or guitar class but again the musical instrument is the computer. We are not a DJ school. We put a big emphasis on musicianship, music theory and composition.

Apart from the musicianship, we teach everything you need to know about making any type of music using the computer. Specifically Ableton Live (popular music software).

Our classrooms are limited to 12 students so we can give enough attention to all students. And we also provide one-on-one mentorship sessions for all students to make sure everyone is maintaining the same level.

We do believe that with music education, strong classmates can elevate each other so we try to make sure no one is falling behind.

One of the things we offer that makes us unique is a dynamic classroom that can be reconfigured to a circle. Every few weeks we reorganize the classroom so everyone is sitting in a circle. We synchronize all the computers so we can play as a band. A computer band.

These jams are awesome and the students love them. I think the best-added value here is for people who usually would produce music alone on their computer. In the jam they have the opportunity to experience how it feels to play with other people in real time.

I’m an Ableton certified trainer and Beat Lab is an Ableton Certified Training center.

To attend Beat Lab students only need a laptop with the software (Ableton Live).

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Luck will always take you 2 steps back or 2 steps forward but it’s always unexpected.

Something I learn the hard way is that – everything that can go wrong will go wrong.

If you prepare for that, you should be OK.

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